Ready For Action

After delivering a smash hit with the old school action original, Sylvester Stallone returns with The Expendables 2, co-starring young Aussie actor, Liam Hemsworth, and the legendary Bruce Willis.

By Gill Pringle

When FilmInk caught up last year with Sylvester Stallone on the New Orleans set of Bullet To The Head, he was shooting full days on location, while in the evening retiring to his rented home to work on the script for The Expendables 2. Though scripting and reprising his role as Barney Ross, Stallone has this time handed over directing duties to Simon West (Con Air). “I’m working on the script right now, and it’s going to be a lot better than the first one,” says Stallone. “With Simon, we have a director who is truly a director. I know that he’s hungry. He’s been there, and he’s had successes, so he knows what works and what doesn’t work. We’ve put together a stellar cast, and the thing right now is how far to push the comedic part or the realistic part, and to keep it right down the middle. I’m really happy about it because now I can finally just concentrate on the part, and not worry about knowing that the camera is in a great place.”

Joining the original principal cast of Jason Statham, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren, Stallone has recruited his hard-man action pals, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, for bigger roles this time out, while also bringing in action titans, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris. Providing a dose of young blood to the action flick is Australia’s own Liam Hemsworth, cast as Bill “The Kid” Timmons. “I’ve grown up watching all those guys in movies, and there I am on set with them,” says the actor, who actually auditioned for the first Expendables, but failed to make the final cut. “I learned so much from watching them. Stallone is one of the smartest people that I’ve ever met, so it was just great to get advice and direction from him.”

When FilmInk teases him about working with a bunch of old farts, Hemsworth laughs. “Those old farts are awesome,” he says. “They’re really, really good guys. It can be daunting for a young actor coming into that situation, but they were all so welcoming. They’re just guy’s guys. You hang out with them all day, and they’re normal, good people. It was so much fun just to be on the same set as those guys. Sly told me that this is the biggest and best thing that he’s written.”
 
While Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger all rose to fame as solo action heroes, today they’re all more likely to be found as part of an action ensemble cast. Willis, for one, says that he’s happy to move with the times. “G.I. Joe: Retaliation, RED, The Expendables... it’s a long list,” the actor says, “but those kind of films have been around since they’ve been making films. Every few years, the idea comes back around to get as many actors into a film as you can, and see what happens. Hopefully, we’ll get lucky with this one.”

The Expendables 2 at cinemas from August 30.